Texas Property Tax Rates by County

Texas Property Tax Rates - 10 Counties Ranked

Ranked from the lowest to the highest representative combined property tax rate. The "combined rate" is the sum of a major city, its school district, the county, and any countywide hospital, college, or special districts, at their adopted 2025 rates. The "typical effective" column is a Census ACS estimate of what homeowners in that county actually pay on market value. The example bill applies the $140,000 school homestead exemption to a $400,000 home.

Combined rates are a representative nominal taxing-unit stack (major city + school district + county + special districts) at adopted 2025 rates, per each county page. Typical effective rates are Census ACS estimates (median real estate taxes / median home value). The example bill applies the $140,000 school-district homestead exemption to a $400,000 home and each county's representative stack; it excludes local-option city/county exemptions and any MUD. Your exact bill depends on your city, school district, and special districts.

Texas Property Tax by Metro

The same 10 counties, grouped by metro. Within each metro, the county you buy in can change your rate by a meaningful margin - which is why buyers compare adjacent counties before choosing where to live.

Greater Houston

Harris (~2.03%) anchors the metro; the suburban counties run lower - Fort Bend (~1.84%, Sugar Land / Katy) and Montgomery (~1.91%, Conroe / The Woodlands). Montgomery adds a countywide hospital district and Lone Star College across most of the county; many Houston-metro suburbs also carry a municipal utility district (MUD) on top. Head-to-head: Fort Bend vs Montgomery - where the lower headline rate is not the lower bill.

Dallas-Fort Worth

The widest spread of any metro. Collin (~1.71%, Plano / Frisco) and Denton (~1.99%) are the lower-rate northern suburbs, while Tarrant (~2.19%, Fort Worth) and Dallas (~2.21%) run higher - Dallas and Tarrant each carry a countywide hospital district and community college that the northern suburbs do not. Head-to-head: Collin vs Denton.

Greater Austin

Williamson (~1.68%, Round Rock / Georgetown) is the lowest combined rate we cover and sits just north of Travis (~2.05%, Austin). Travis carries Central Health and Austin Community College county-wide; Williamson has neither on most bills (Austin Community College taxes only annexed areas), which is a large part of the gap. This is one of the most-searched "which county is cheaper" pairs in the state - see the full head-to-head: Williamson vs Travis.

San Antonio

Bexar (~2.27%) is the highest combined rate among the covered counties. Its countywide portion is unusually large because Bexar carries University Health, Alamo Colleges, the San Antonio River Authority, and a road-and-flood district on top of the county's own rate.

Understanding the Spread

The combined rates in the table run from about 1.68% to 2.27% - a spread of roughly 0.59 percentage points, or about $2,360 a year on a $400,000 home. Two things drive most of that gap:

• Countywide special districts. Counties with a hospital district plus a community college on the bill (Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Travis) carry a larger countywide portion than counties without (Williamson, Collin, Denton). That single structural difference explains much of the top-vs-bottom spread.
• The city and school district you land in. Because the school district is usually about half the bill, a lower-rate ISD (like Round Rock or Plano) pulls a county toward the bottom of the ranking even if the county's own rate is average.

What Is - and Is Not - Directly Comparable

The combined rate is the fairest single number to rank counties, but read it with three cautions:

• Nominal, not effective. The combined rate adds up posted per-$100 rates before exemptions. The typical effective column is closer to what people pay, and it can re-order counties - Montgomery's nominal rate is high (1.91%) but its effective rate is the lowest in the table (~1.37%), because much of the county sits in The Woodlands (no city tax) and long-held homesteads benefit from the cap.
• Rate is not the dollar bill. Home values differ sharply by metro. A lower rate on a higher-value Austin home can still cost more in dollars than a higher rate on a lower-value suburb - use the county comparison calculator to compare a specific home value.
• Special districts vary within a county. A municipal utility district (MUD), emergency-services district, or improvement district can add its own rate on top of the stack, especially in newer master-planned communities. The table excludes these.

Next Steps

• Compare a specific home value across counties with the Texas county tax comparison calculator.
• Project next year's bill under the 10% appraisal cap with the Texas property tax cap calculator.
• See a county's full breakdown - each county page has the taxing-unit stack, an exemption-aware estimator, and official sources. Start with the Texas hub.

Methodology

Each county's combined rate is the sum of a representative major city, its school district, the county's own rate, and any countywide hospital, college, or special districts, at their adopted 2025 (tax year) rates, taken from each county's official records (county tax office / appraisal district / Truth-in-Taxation) as documented on that county's page. The typical effective rate is a Census American Community Survey (ACS) estimate - median real estate taxes paid divided by median home value for the county - and is labeled an estimate, not an adopted rate. The example bill applies the $140,000 school-district homestead exemption to a $400,000 home against each county's representative stack, before local-option city/county exemptions and any MUD. Rates are representative because the exact stack varies by city, school district, and special district within each county. We do not invent rates; every figure traces to the county page and its official sources.